Beyond Biocentrism ─ Rethinking Time, Space, Consciousness, and the Illusion of Death

Biocentrism shocked the world with a radical rethinking of the nature of reality.

But that was just the beginning.

In Beyond Biocentrism, acclaimed biologist Robert Lanza, one of TIME Magazine’s "100 Most Influential People in 2014," and leading astronomer Bob Berman, take the reader on an intellectual thrill-ride as they re-examine everything we thought we knew about life, death, the universe, and the nature of reality itself.

The first step is acknowledging that our existing model of reality is looking increasingly creaky in the face of recent scientific discoveries. Science tells us with some precision that the universe is 26.8 percent dark matter, 68.3 percent dark energy, and only 4.9 percent ordinary matter, but must confess that it doesn’t really know what dark matter is and knows even less about dark energy. Science is increasingly pointing toward an infinite universe but has no ability to explain what that really means. Concepts such as time, space, and even causality are increasingly being demonstrated as meaningless.

All of science is based on information passing through our consciousness but science hasn’t the foggiest idea what consciousness is, and it can’t explain the linkage between subatomic states and observation by conscious observers. Science describes life as an random occurrence in a dead universe but has no real understanding of how life began or why the universe appears to be exquisitely designed for the emergence of life.

Biocentrism isn’t a rejection of science. Quite the opposite. Biocentrism challenges us to fully accept the implications of the latest scientific findings in fields ranging from plant biology and cosmology to quantum entanglement and consciousness.

By listening to what the science is telling us, it becomes increasingly clear that life and consciousness are fundamental to any true understanding of the universe. This forces a fundamental rethinking of everything we thought we knew about life, death, and our place in the universe.

Robert Lanza has been exploring the frontiers of science for more than four decades, and is considered one of the leading scientists in the world. He is Chief Scientific Officer at Advanced Cell Technology, and Adjunct Professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. He has several hundred publications and inventions, and 20 scientific books, among them,Principles of Tissue Engineering, which is recognized as the definitive reference in the field. Others includeOne World: The Health & Survival of the Human Species in the 21st Century (with a foreword by President Jimmy Carter), and theHandbook of Stem Cells and Essentials of Stem Cell Biology, which are considered the definitive references in stem cell research.

Dr. Lanza received his B.A. and M.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was both a University Scholar and Benjamin Franklin Scholar. He was also a Fulbright Scholar, and was part of the team that cloned the world’s first human embryo, as well as the first to clone an endangered species, to demonstrate that nuclear transfer could reverse the aging process, and to generate stem cells using a method that does not require the destruction of human embryos. Dr. Lanza was awarded the 2005 Rave Award for Medicine by Wired magazine, and received the 2006 All Star” Award for Biotechnology by Mass High Tech.

Dr. Lanza and his research have been featured in almost every media outlet in the world, including all the major television networks, CNN,Time, Newsweek, People magazine, as well as the front pages of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, andUSA Today, among others. Lanza has worked with some of the greatest thinkers of our time, including Nobel Laureates Gerald Edelman and Rodney Porter. Lanza worked closely with B.F. Skinner at Harvard University. Lanza and Skinner (the Father of Modern Behaviorism”) published a number of scientific papers together. He has also worked with Jonas Salk (discoverer of the polio vaccine) and heart transplant pioneer Christiaan Barnard.

Bob Berman is the world’s most widely read astronomer. He has authored more than a thousand published articles in national magazines, written seven popular books for major publishers, and been a guest on such TV shows asTODAY, and Late Night with David Letterman. For the past decade he has been the chief astronomer for SLOOH, the community observatory.

Since 1989, Bob has been a popular monthly columnist in first Discover magazine (1989-2006), and thenAstronomy magazine (1994 to present) where he's also the contributing editor. He is also the longtime astronomy editor of theOld Farmers Almanac. Listeners in seven states hear his Skywindow program on Northeast Public Radio stations during NPR's Weekend Edition. During the 1980s, Berman ran the summer astronomy program at Yellowstone Park for the National Park Service and Yellowstone Institute. Berman founded the Catskill Astronomical Society in 1976, the Storm King Observatory at Cornwall, New York, and Overlook Observatory, near Woodstock, New York. He was adjunct professor of astronomy and physics at Marymount College from 1995-2000.

As a lecturer who leads large expeditions three times each year to celestial events such as auroras and total eclipses, as well as a SLOOH live commentator, Bob has spent five years overseas from the Arctic to the Antarctic, and has lectured for innumerable universities and federal entities, such as the National Institute for Standards and Technology.